Last week we talked about content as it relates to the customer. This week we’ll discuss how the content you generate is viewed by the search engines that direct people to your page.
What is SEO?
Optimizing your page to be attractive to search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo causes your site to be generated closer to the top of their search lists. This practice is commonly called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. It’s not as complicated as you might think.
Often, it very simply employs the judicious use of common sense. This is because search engines are meant to discover pages with a natural layout. They will penalize sites attempting to game the system, but there are a few ways to increase your standing in the eyes of a search engine that fall well within the rules.
We’re only going to cover a few basics over which you, as the generator of content for your site, have direct control. There are plenty of other parts to SEO that fall under the auspices of the company providing your page, but if you use a reputable company, such as the good people here at FGmarket, they are already taking care of those things for you.
- Quality Content – All the content information I provided last week is also important for SEO. If you are giving your customer content they take the time to either read or look at, search engines will track it and grade you accordingly. For example: You just posted the site for your cake decorating business, but you haven’t had the time to put up any interesting content. A customer arrives after having been directed here by a search engine, but not being interested in what they see on the splash page, they quickly leave. The search engine translates this fast departure as if your site is irrelevant to whatever search the customer performed. This, in turn, causes your page to be downgraded in regards to their search query. On the contrary, if the customer is entertained or enthralled by the beautiful pictures of elegantly designed cakes and stays to check them out, the site is then viewed as relevant and is subsequently upgraded. Quality content is very important! For more information on how to make your content quality, check out last weeks post.
- Keywords – This one may require some small bit of research, but it’s completely worth your time to do it; fortunately, the metrics are out there. You just have to find them. It’s important to know what key words YOUR customer uses to find you. Once you’ve identified what they are, make sure you use them! We’re not talking about spamming a keyword or phrase over and over, (It has to be readable remember?) but rather, we are talking about using the keywords you previously discovered in your current writing and headings naturally. It’s not as hard as it sounds. For example: You’re a florist. Instead of typing “flowers for a funeral” as your heading, you would simply type “funeral flowers.” Why? Because when a customer is looking for flowers for a funeral, the words they type into the search engine will most often be “funeral flowers.” This will prompt the search engine to pull your page because it matches their search exactly. Keywords are very important, but again, don’t let them make your content unreadable. It does you no good for a customer to be directed to your site if they aren’t willing to stay long enough to get the information you’re trying to provide.
- Keep it Fresh – Search engines perform an activity called “crawl” on a daily basis wherein they access every page on the web and scan it. If a page has not been updated for a long time, the engine begins to regard it as irrelevant. Keeping content revolving is a plus, but that’s not enough in and of itself.The way to truly get your page noticed is to have content that is relevant to the hot-button issues in your industry. If you have fresh content on a topic that is receiving more than average hits, the search engine will push your page to the top. Again, not as hard as it sounds. For example: You’re a gift shop owner. Thanksgiving has just passed and Christmas is on its way. Post about it! Talk about the new stock you’ve received, put up pictures of the ceramic Santas or holiday wreaths. People increase searches for these items when the appropriate holiday is coming, and if you have fresh content when the searches increase, your site’s visibility will rise accordingly! If you rely on last year’s post, it’s just not going to work.
I appreciate your time, and I hope you found this article helpful. Come back next week and we’ll talk about how to properly use social media to increase your business!
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